[Development and application of biosensors for medical field]

Methods for the selective determination of organic compounds in biological fluids, such as blood, are very important in clinical analyses. Most analyses of organic compounds can be performed by spectrophotometric methods, based on specific enzyme-catalyzed reactions. However, because of the complicated procedure, these methods cannot be applied directly to bed-side monitoring. Alternatively, biosensors based on enzymes and electrochemical transducers possess excellent sensitivity for biological substrates and can determine a single compound in a biological fluid directly without need for a prior separation step. Therefore, in the past several years, many kinds of biosensors have been developed, and implantable microbiosensors for a body organ have also been reported.